Timaean Time (27 Oct 2023; Plato/Brague)

In this essay, I will explicate how the Timaeus presents the notion of time. In my discourse, I’ll expand beyond my thesis and discuss broader aspects of the Timaeus over the course of a few parts, utilizing not only Plato’s Timaeus but also Brague’s Wisdom of the World. First, I’ll introduce the Timaeus, explaining its origins amongst prior cosmogonies and cosmologies. Next, I’ll explain the structure of the Timaeus, and describe how that structure relates to the distinction between Being and Becoming. Finally, I’ll break down what Plato aims to teach concerning the notion of time in the Timaean model.

Introduction

Plato’s Timaeus is a dramatic dialogue that describes a cosmology that re-establishes the link between the cosmological and anthropological realm that was severed previously by Socrates, who believed that moral good and order was determined by the polis rather than the celestial. The cosmology the character Timaeus presents is not to be taken as dogma, but rather as a “likely story” (Timaeus 29D). Many sophists prior to Plato did not take an interest in cosmological issues (Wisdom 36), and pre-cosmic Mesopotamia conceived that it is, “through wise behavior that the order of the world is first of all formed and becomes reality… it is… the just practice of man that contributes to maintaining the world in movement” (Wisdom 15). Near-eastern societies, like the Mesepotameans, saw that order in the polis dictated the order of the world around them. Without anthropological influence, the world would not exist in order, and thus the cosmos had no value: “Order did not exist prior to wisdom… as a model to imitate [in the physical cosmos]” (Wisdom 16). The Timaeus stands against these anthropocentric wisdoms, offering that it is the physical cosmos that the anthropological realm must imitate.

Section I: Structure of the Timaeus

To understand the corollary value between the concepts of Being and Becoming and the genius structure of the Timaeus, I must first explain the concepts of Being and Becoming. Prior to Timaeus’ discourse on what is brought forth through intellect and necessity (the two beginnings), Timaeus defines the terms Being and Becoming as background metaphysical knowledge for the remainder of his speech. He introduces the subject by questioning, “What is it that always is and has no becoming; and what is it that comes to be and never is” (Timaeus 27C-28A)? He claims that the former remains in a condition of sameness and can be grasped by the intellect (things that maintain a sort of permanence such as math) and that the latter “comes to be and perishes and never genuinely is,” (Timaeus 28A), and can be grasped by opinion through the senses. He later states that “everything that comes to be necessarily comes to be by some cause” (Timaeus 28A), a statement which acts as a basis for the necessity for there to be a craftsman/creator. It is prohibited that this creator look at what has come to be through Becoming as his model for creation, as it would not be as beautiful as something that always is in a self-same condition (Timaeus 28A). 

The first form, that which is grasped by the intellect, is that of Being; the second form, that which is grasped by the senses, is that of Becoming. Plato posits that the cosmos obviously came to be, since it can be grasped by the senses (Timaeus 28C): in the cosmos’ becoming, the craftsman fashioned it by looking towards an everlasting self-same model, reminiscent of the principle of being. In other words, the cosmos was created “in reference to that which is grasped by reason and prudence and is in a self-same condition” (Timaeus 29A). Essentially, to Timaeus, Being is to Becoming as truth is to trust (Timaeus 29A); Becoming is the sensible a posteriori manifestation of imitation of the a priori nature of Being. The divine craftsman of the cosmos in a way bridges the gap between that which always is and that which becomes, by creating a Becoming based off of Being. The significance and meaning of necessity will be elaborated upon in the proceeding section, and for the time being, it should be associated with the concept of the physical cosmos and Becoming. 

The Timaeus dialogue unfolds in a three-part structure. The aim of Plato in writing the Timaeus was for the character Timaeus to present his cosmology in chronological order (from start to finish of the book) in a way that correlates with a hierarchy of the cosmos. Following the preliminary remarks discussed in the previous paragraph, Timaeus first delves into things that are brought into being through intellect, then into things brought forth through necessity, and finally explores how intellect and necessity interact with one another, a section that pertains to mankind. For intellect to exist, it must have a vessel; this is the significance of soul in the Timaeus. In the first section, Timaeus, admittedly mistakenly, introduces the concept of the body of the cosmos prior to the concept of the soul (Timaeus 34C). The necessity of the body is that in order for the soul to exist, it must also have a vessel; this applies both to the universe, which is an intelligent, living thing (Timaeus 30B-C), in addition to man. Necessity, the next section of the Timaeus, which can be understood as chora or Space (which, again, will be elaborated upon in the next section of this essay), corresponds with Becoming and the body of the universe (and of humans). That intellect, which corresponds with Being and soul, is the first section, is not a coincidence. Brague reached the same conclusion, writing, “it seems to me that the very structure of the text parallels the structure and functions of the human body, as the dialogue itself describes them– the first part corresponds to the head, the second to the torso, with its major connection at the diaphragm” (Wisdom 33)). This is what makes the structure of the Timaeus so genius; it is laid out in an order that corresponds to the creation/hierarchy of the universe and of man.

Section II: The First and Second Beginnings

The hierarchy of soul prior to body in both the cosmic sense and the human sense, and the presentation of the genesis of celestial prior to the human is essential to understanding the Timaeus. The Timaeus strives to present things in a hierarchy of goodness, with the most perfect earlier in the book and less perfect later in the book, and the genesises in question are consistent with this writing style. The craftsman, knowing that intellect cannot exist without soul, “[constructed] intellect within soul and soul within body… it must be said that this cosmos here was in truth born an animal having soul and intellect through the forethought of the god” (Timaeus 30B-30C). The body of the cosmos, constructed by the four elements (water, air, fire, and earth (Timaeus 32B), houses the soul, constructed of that which is non-partitioned and always self-same (Same) and that which is partitioned and comes to be in the realm of others (Other), both of which are part of Being. 

After the soul was created, he joined it with body, creating the cosmic animal. The intellect, and thus the soul, is superior and former to body, and rules over it in the celestial realm through motion (Timaeus 40A-40C). The soul of the cosmos is what gives it its order. Humans are created in the same chronological order, in which the soul precedes the body, where the soul is composed of a slightly less pure mixture that is otherwise identical to that of the soul of the universe (Timaeus 41D-41E). Mortal human life is brought to be in this cosmos, where the celestial precedes us; the order of the celestial impinges upon us, such that we would want to bring ourselves in accordance with this celestial order. At birth, human life is disordered, as Timaeus says, “soul first becomes mindless whenever she’s bound with a mortal body” (Timaeus 44A-B), and the way in which we may re-establish this order is through imitation of the divine motion of the celestial (Timaeus 44D). The intellect is responsible for the realization of this (with the help of the senses to learn about nature), thus the soul governs our body, and not the other way around.

The third principle, later introduced alongside Being and Becoming, is that of Space or Chora, terms which I will use interchangeably. Chora plays the role of necessity, introduced in the second beginning of the Timaeus. Chora acts as the bridge between Being and Becoming, with Timaeus clarifying that all three, “are before the birth of heaven; and that wet nurse of becoming… appears to our sight in all sorts of ways” (Timaeus 52D). Alongside calling it a wet nurse, he calls it a “receptacle for all becoming” (Timaeus 49A). The concept is obscure and difficult, “especially because, for its sake, it’s first necessary to raise perplexities about fire and its fellows. For in describing each of these, it’s difficult to say which one should genuinely be called water rather than fire…” (Timaeus 49A-49B). However, these difficulties become clearer as he explains the concept. Without a receptacle, there is no bridge in the gap between that which always is and that always becomes; he uses the four elements in his explanation. The main issue is that the elements only pass on to one another in a “circle” and nothing can be identified as “this” or “that,” rather they can only be described as being of a certain sort (Timaeus 49D). A thing that appears as the element of fire is only momentarily that, fire, before cycling to one of the other elements. Timaeus sums up this complex topic, writing that Chora is “neither earth nor air nor fire nor water… she is some invisible and shapeless form–all-receptive, but partaking somehow of the intelligible in a most perplexing way and most hard-to capture” (Timaeus 51A-51B). It therefore is something like a substratum of the material world, that temporarily dons the characteristics of the elements as they appear to us, transient in their nature. The physical world which we see is exactly this, temporary cycling particulars overlaid atop a base Chora which is the receptacle of the elements.

Section III: The Notion of Time

Seeing that the Animal of the cosmos was eternal, the divine craftsmen decided that it would be pertinent to make a “certain moving likeness of eternity… an eternal likeness that goes according to number, that very thing we have named time” (Timaeus 37D-37E). Days, nights, months, and years are all parts of time, alongside the idea of “was” and “will be,” which are often incorrectly associated with the idea of Being, which only ever is. “Was” and “will be” befit the notion of Becoming rather than Being. As time is a moving likeness of eternity, Timaeus calls the ideas “was” and “will be” “motions” (Timaeus 38A). Time and heaven were begotten together, and if either is destroyed, the other will go along with it; they are interwoven. Time, like the universe, was made by reference to a model of that which is eternally occurring in nature. For time to be begotten, seven celestial bodies exist on its behalf; the Sun, the moon, and five other stars, classified as “wanderers” (Timaeus 38C). These celestial bodies “mark off and guard the numbers of time” (Timaeus 38C). Once these celestial bodies were made, they were set into circuits; different markers of time began to appear from these circuits, most primarily night and day, from the rising and setting of the sun. Months can be denoted when the moon moves full circle, overtaking the sun, and year when the sun goes around its own circle (Timaeus 39C). All the stars of the sky each show time as well, a fact which Timaeus says most do not know.  Finally, Timaeus says that all the stars were created and placed into motion and circuits (creating time) so that the animal of time “might be as similar as possible to the perfect and intelligible Animal in the imitation of its eternally enduring nature” (Timaeus 39D-39E). Essentially, time was created so that the universe which has become, and lasts forever in the direction of “was” or “will be” may more closely resemble the perfect model, which is eternal and always.

Conclusion

Later in the Timaeus, Plato writes, “One should mark off two forms of cause– the necessary and the divine– and seek the divine in all things for the sake of gaining a happy life, to the extent that our nature allows, and the necessary for the sake of those divine things” (Timaeus 68E-69A). The Timaeus emphasizes the importance of the divine celestial realm, and its ability to grant humanity order on earth should we imitate the celestial cycles using our intellect, aided by that which we discover through the senses. In imitating these cycles, cultivating as much order from the natural world as possible, we will find ourselves morally sound and “good,” adherent to the natural laws of the cosmos. Those who are wise are those who study the cycles of the natural world and imitate it best. 

Works Cited

Brague, Rémi. The Wisdom of the World: The Human Experience of the Universe in Western Thought. University of Chicago Press, 2020. 

Plato, and Peter Kalkavage. Timaeus. Hackett Publishing Company, 2016.